Inside Spain Nr 136 16 January - 20 February 2017 William Chislett Summary Rajoy offers to be Trump’s interlocutor in Europe and Latin America. King’s brother-in-law convicted for fraud and influence peddling. Thousands protest as former Catalan Premier stands trial. Merchandise exports notch up yet another record. Spain drops to 41st position in Transparency International’s Corruption Index. Foreign Policy Rajoy offers to be Trump’s interlocutor in Europe and Latin America Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy spoke with US President Donald Trump on the telephone and offered Spain as the ‘interlocutor in Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East’. The proposal was fiercely criticised by Mario Jiménez, spokesman for the opposition Socialists, who called Rajoy Trump’s ‘butler’. Foreign policy experts said Rajoy’s idea was out of character as he is cautious by nature and reluctant to lead any initiative or stick his neck out. Furthermore, Spain has a strong streak of anti-Americanism which cuts across party lines. The former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar (1996-2004) forged a closer relationship with the US and supported the invasion of Iraq, despite public opinion being overwhelmingly against it. Before the conversation with Trump, Rajoy spoke with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to offer his support in resolving the controversial issue of Trump’s determination to extend the wall between the US and Mexico, which has plunged relations between the two countries into crisis. Rajoy and Peña Nieto agreed to ‘join efforts in the search for a fair, sensible and reasonable arrangement that will help overcome the current situation’. When asked to comment on Trump’s immigration policy, including the travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim countries, Rajoy said he was ‘not in favour of vetoes or of borders, nor do I believe the world is heading in this direction’. 1 Inside Spain Nr 136 16 January - 20 February 2017 Spain has a close relationship with Mexico, particularly since the death of General Franco in 1975. Mexico received thousands of supporters of the Spanish Second Republic who went into exile after Franco won the 1936-39 Civil War. As a result of another hostile decision by Trump –to revise the free trade agreement between Mexico and the US (NAFTA)– Rajoy is in favour of accelerating a new commercial agreement between the EU and Mexico. The current one, in place since 2000, needs to be changed because of agreements made since then with other countries. Spanish opposition parties also criticised Rajoy for his slow and muted response to Trump’s executive orders, compared with the more forceful reaction of the conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Socialist French President François Hollande. Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis denied the government was being deliberately silent about Trump’s orders. He defended the need to act ‘serenely, without rushing into things’. Miffed over White House decision to remove Spanish language website The government is not happy about the disappearance (as of 23 January) of the White House’s Spanish-language website, particularly given that there are an estimated 57 million Spanish speakers in the US, the largest minority living in the 320 million-strong country. According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the website is being updated. Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said the removal of texts in Spanish ‘doesn’t seem like a good idea’, while Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, the government spokesman, said Spanish had ‘helped bring together the multicultural North American society for centuries’. Trump criticised during his campaign the speaking of Spanish in the US. ‘To have a country, we have to have assimilation. This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish’. Under Barack Obama, the White House also had a Spanish-language blog. Obama himself tweeted in Spanish on 13 January, a week before Trump took office. Spanish is the most frequently taught foreign language in the US. Latinos are the only minority to have their own TV networks (Univisión and Telemundo) in Spanish. Unlike previous Administrations, Trump’s team does not have a single prominent Latino. According to estimates and surveys by the Washington Post, Trump received 18% of the Latino vote, the lowest level on record for any presidential candidate. 2 Inside Spain Nr 136 16 January - 20 February 2017 Conciliatory on Brexit, favouring deal for Brit expats in Spain Spain is shaping up to be the most conciliatory country towards the UK when the Brexit negotiations begin as of April, which is not that surprising given the importance of the trade, investment and tourism relation between the two countries and the number of British citizens living in Spain. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy met Theresa May, his counterpart, on the sidelines of the EU leaders meeting in Malta where the idea was put forward that if a EU-wide agreement on guaranteeing the rights of Brits in EU countries after the UK leaves the EU could not be agreed then a bilateral accord might be made. Whether a bilateral deal would be done is somewhat uncharted territory, as the scope for EU countries to strike such agreements is limited (taxation is a notable area where these deals exist). The EU’s permission would probably be needed. Some EU countries are harder than Spain over a deal on the issue of Brits who were living and/or working in the EU before the Brexit referendum. The UK government would like a deal that applies to all non-British nationals in the UK and to all UK nationals in the 27 EU states. There are 300,000 Britons officially registered as living in Spain (by far the largest number in a EU country) and more than 100,000 Spaniards in the UK. Last year 17.8 million of the 75.3 million tourists in Spain came from the UK. The House of Commons Brexit select committee last month heard that British pensioners in Spain may struggle to afford private healthcare if the NHS can no longer foot the bill as a result of an EU-wide post-Brexit deal. Brexit is seen as something of a threat to the Spanish economy. Not only is the UK the main source of tourists and UK retirees living in Spain also play an important role in local economies, particularly on the costas during the low season, but the trade and direct investment relation is also strong. Some of these pensioners have already moved back to the UK as they cannot wait more than two years to get a resolution. Domestic Scene King’s brother-in-law convicted for fraud and influence peddling Iñaki Urdangarín, King Felipe VI’s brother-in-law, was given a six-year-and-three-month jail term in a landmark corruption trial. His wife, the Infanta Cristina, was cleared but will have to pay a civil fine of €265,000 as she benefited, albeit unknowingly, from illegal gains. There were 16 other defendants in the case, including Jaume Matas, a former Popular Party government minister and Premier of the Balearic Islands, who was sentenced to 3 Inside Spain Nr 136 16 January - 20 February 2017 three years and eight months. Diego Torres, Urdangarín’s former business partner, was given eight years and six months. Nine defendants were acquitted. Urdangarín was accused of using the non-profit Noos Institute sports foundation he set up to win falsely inflated contracts from regional government bodies and then salting the money away via tax havens. The case began in 2010 at the height of Spain’s recession and a great deal of public anger at corruption among the country’s elites, including the royals, factors that played a role in the decision of King Juan Carlos to abdicate in 2014. The trial was perceived a test that everyone being equal before the law, and could do something to restore trust in public life. Thousands protest as former Catalan Premier stands trial Artur Mas, the former Catalan Premier, went on trial in Barcelona along with two members of his cabinet for organising a non-binding illegal vote in 2014 on independence. He walked to court and was greeted by thousands of supporters including members of the current Catalan government and of the regional parliament shouting ‘independence’ and ‘you are not alone’. Around 2.3 million people –between 36% and 43% of the electorate, depending on which side’s figures are used– cast a ballot in the plebiscite and 80% voted for independence. Pro-independence forces then won 48% of the vote in the Catalan legislative election in 2015 and have an absolute majority of seats. Mas, accused of civil disobedience, faces a 10-year ban from holding public office. He said there had been no intention to break the law. Moreover, he argued, the Constitutional Court’s decision to rule against the vote days beforehand had not made clear what the legal consequences would be. ‘If it was so evidently a crime, how is it possible the Constitutional Court did nothing to enforce its resolution?’. The central government’s ‘Operation Dialogue’, launched in January in a bid to avoid a train crash with the Catalan government, has got nowhere. Madrid is not prepared to discuss the holding of the legally-binding referendum which Barcelona plans to hold in September regardless of whether the go-ahead is given. In a separate development, which further intensified the antagonism, the Civil Guard arrested 18 people during a series of raids as part of a probe into the alleged illegal financing of Convergència, the party of Mas and of Carles Puigdemont, the current Catalan Premier, before it was renamed in 2015.